Café Des Artistes to Make Grand Comeback at Former UWS Home
The beloved Upper West Side restaurant, which closed in 2009 after nearly a century in business, will be revived under new ownership in the coming months. It will be keeping its famed wood nymph murals.
| 01 Oct 2026 | 06:06
Café des Artistes is making a roaring comeback to the ground floor of the Hotel des Artistes on W. 67th Street, under new ownership. It shuttered in 2009 after nearly a century in business. (
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The original Café des Artistes, pictured above in 2008 a year before its closure.
A new poster on the to-be entrance to the revived Café des Artistes encourages local residents to get on an email list for new updates. (
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Café des Artistes is set to make a grand return to 1 West 67th St. roughly 17 years after it closed, as confirmed by an ad taken out in the New York Times on September 27.
It will be operated by Ariel Arce and Max Katzenberg, the team behind AirMax Hospitality, which took over the space that used to house the plush restaurant back in June. They are reportedly targeting an open date of early next year.
The successor to Café des Artistes, The Leopard at des Artistes, closed this February after an unworkable rent hike; the latter restaurant was operated by Gianfranco and Paula-Bolla Sorrentino.
The Times ad, written in block letters, made a simple request of former patrons: “Were you there? Give us a call or send us a note with your favorite memories, photos and stories.” AirMax then instructed readers to either call 646-389-1005 or email memories@cafedesartistesnyc.com.
This means that the Hotel Des Artistes, the residential co-op building that Café des Artistes served as a ground-floor tenant for between 1917 and 2009, will be restored to its former state. AirMax teased their plans in appearance before Community Board 7 in June, where Katzenberg clarified that a reopened restaurant would serve food from noon to 10 p.m. seven days a week.
The board of the building was responsible for handing the lease off to AirMax. Arce and Katzenberg manage other restaurants including Tokyo Record Bar, Roscioli NYC, Pearl Box, Leonessa, anl desd Big Pearl Caviar.
The restaurant was once known for attracting the kind of patrons, namely artists, who resided in the apartments situated in the “Hotel des Artistes” above the restaurant. The apartments did not contain a kitchen, so the downstairs restaurant initially catered to them as a core constituency.
It was widely recognized as reaching its zenith under the stewardship of George Lang, who originally hailed from Hungary and took over the business alongside his wife Jennifer in 1975. According to Eater, signature dishes such as “salmon four ways, pot-au-feu, and tarte à l’oignon” became popular mainstays under their management.
He unfortunately ran into hard times in the Great Recession of 2008 and declared chapter 7 bankruptcy and closed the restaurant in 2009.
It has always been an artisitic showcase. Huge wall murals were added to Café des Artistes in 1934—and most have stayed up since, despite the succeeding closures and shifts in ownership. The murals—will remain intact during its revival. Painted by the beloved Howard Chandler Christy, who lived upstairs, the six-paneled murals wrap around the walls and depict an array of frolicking wood nymphs.
Indeed, Chandler’s contributions at the restaurant figured heavily into the art currents of the time, as later recalled by none other than conceptual art pioneer Marcel Duchamp during an interview in the 1960s.
Duchamp said that he “jumped up” and signed a tableau of Chandler’s earlier paintings during an evening at the restaurant in 1916, creating “a ready-made which had everything except taste. And no system.” Duchamp’s “ready-made,” which was dubbed “The Battle Scene,” was then eventually covered up by Chandler’s nymph panels.
AirMax manages other restaurants including Tokyo Record Bar, Roscioli NYC, Pearl Box, Leonessa, and Big Pearl Caviar.
The West Side Spirit visited the premises of the Hotel des Artistes on Thursday, October 1, where a posted notice confirmed that big changes were afoot. A work permit plastered one part of a door, next to a poster that proclaimed “New Restaurant Coming Soon—Be The First To Know.”
Similarly to the ad that ran in the Times, the poster included a QR code to an online form that asked for one’s email and phone number. An “Are you an Upper West Side resident” question on the form included the options of “No, but I’m always here” and “No, but I still want to know about the new restaurant.” Either way, it appears that everybody is invited.